On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (4)
-
956 T HE L E A D E B, f^o. 341, Satfbbat
-
REPRINTS AND NEW EDITIONS. AVb have some...
-
>¦ " f r*l ± '&ll£ ^11*111 S * - ¦¦¦ .. ¦ . ¦ —?-—- :
-
AUTIIOll-ACTORS— « PEKDITA " AT THE LYCK...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Early Life Of Wasiiingtox. Life Of Washi...
proof of his muscular power , a-place is still pointed out at Fredericksburg , near the lower ferry where , when a boy , he flung a stone across the Rappahannock . In horsemanship , tfcb , he already excelled , and was ready to back , and able to manage the most restive steed . Traditional anecdotes remain of his achievements in this respect . Above all , his inherent probity and the principles of justice on which he regulated all his conduct , even at this early period of life , were soon appreciated by his schoolmates ; he was referred to as an umpire in their disputes , and his decisions were never reversed . As he had formerly been military chieftain , he was now legislator of the school ; thus displaying in boyhood a type of the future man . Washington ' s manuscript school books still exist . They arcmarvels of neatness and accuracy , and indicate those habits of perseverance and completeness in all his undertakings which in after life enabled him to keep perfectly in hand , under the most difficult circumstances , all the multifarious details of his public and pr ivate business . But—who -would have thought it . ?— ¦ ¦ ¦¦ - ' ¦ ¦ - . . . ¦ . /¦/¦ .. ' ¦ ¦ : ¦ ' ¦ ¦ ¦' . . . . . . .. _ . ¦ ' ¦ ; V In one of these manuscript memorials of his practical studies and exercises , we have come upon some documents singularly in contrast with all that we have just cited , and with his apparently unromantic character . In a word , there are evidences in his own handwriting , that , before he was fifteen years of age , he had conceived a passion for some unknown beattty , so serious as to disturb his otherwise well-regulated mind , and to make him really unhappy . "Why this juvenile attachment was a source of unhappiness we have no positive means of ascertaining . Perhaps the object of it may liave considered him a mere schoolboy , and treated luiri as such ; or his own shyness may have been in his way , and his " rules for behaviour and conversation " may as yet have sat awkwardly on him , and rendered him formal and ungainly when he most sought to please . Even in later years he was apt to be silent and embarrassed in female society . "He was a very bashful young man , " said an old lady , whom he used to visit when they were both in their nonage . " I used often to wish lie would talk more . " ' : , . "¦ ¦ - ¦ ' : ; ¦ -.- ¦ ' ... ' " ' ' - ; ' " " . '¦ Whatever may have been the reason , this early attachment seems to have been a source of poignant discomfort to him . It clungto him after he took a final leave of school in the autumn of 1747 , and went to reside with his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon . Here he continued his mathematical studies and Ms practice in surveying-, disturbed at times by recurrences of his unlucky passion . Though by no means of a poetical temperament , the waste pages of his journal betray several attempts to ' pour forth his amorous sorrows in verse . They are mere commonplace rhymes , such as lovers at his age are apt to write , in which lie bewails his " poor restless heart , wounded by Cupid ' s dart , " and "• bleeding for one who remains pitiless of his griefs and woes . " ; . ¦" '¦ . ; ' . ¦• • ¦ . The tenor of some of his verses induce us to believe that he never told his love ; but as we have already surmised , was prevented by his bashfulness . " Ah , woe is mej that I should love and conceal ; Long have I wished and never dare reveal . "
It is difficult to reconcile one ' s self to the idea of the cool and sedate Washington , the great champion of American liberty , ' a ¦ . woe-worn lover in his youthful days , " sighing like furnace , " and inditing plaintive verses about the groves of Mount Vernon . We aie glad of an opportunity , however , of penetrating to his native feelings , and finding that under his studied decorum and reserve he had a heart of flesh tbrotbing with the warm impulses of human nature . _ The name of Washington ' s first love is not positively known ; but tradition ^ states that she was a Miss Grimes , "' afterwards Mrs . Lee , and mother of General Henry Lee , who fi gures in revolutionary history as Light Horse Harry , and was always a favourite with Washington , probably from the recollection of his early tenderness for the mother . "
The marriage of Lawrence Washington with one of the daughters of Sir William ; Fail-fax , of Belvoir , Virginia , introduced George to society which " could not but have a beneficial effect in moulding the character and manners of a somewhat homebred sclioolboy . " It had also a . notable share in determining the course of his fortunes ; for Lord Fairfax , Sir William ' s cousin , employed him to survey his vast estates in Virginia , and it was probably through the influence of the same nobleman that Washington was appointed public surveyor in his seventeenth year . He retained this lucrative office for three or four years , spending the greater part of his time in toilsome expeditions in the mountains , and his leism * e with his cultivated brother at Mount Vernon , or with the Fairfax family . While he was thus occupied , theJYench and English -were severally taking measures to enforce their conflicting claims to the Ohio valley ., and war was becoming imminent . Virginia was dividedinfco military districts , each having an adjutant-general , with the rank of major , and the pay of 150 / . a ' year . One of these appointmeats was conferred on Washington , though lie was but nineteen years of
age , and he proved himself worthy of it . He at once applied himself with hia usual assiduity to the acquirement of the necesstu-y military knowledge , but his studies were interrupted by the illness and death of his favourite brother , Lawrence . At the end of October , in the following year ( 1753 ) , ho -was sent on a mission to the French commander , and thenceforth he was constantly occupied in the preliminaries or the actual events of border warfare , until a few months before the termination of that contest between France and England for dominion in America in which the first « un was hred m his own encounter with De Jumonville . The manner in which he discharged the mission above mentioned established him at once in public estimation as qualified for important civil and military trust . u From that moment , " says his biographer , " he was the rising hope of Virginia . " After his last campaign as commander of the Virginian forces , Washington was married , in January , 1759 , to Mrs . Martha Curtis , and retired to Mount Vernon , " his harbour of repose , where he fancied himself anchored for life .
956 T He L E A D E B, F^O. 341, Satfbbat
956 T HE L E A D E B , f ^ o . 341 , Satfbbat
Reprints And New Editions. Avb Have Some...
REPRINTS AND NEW EDITIONS . AVb have some new editions and reprints to catalogue . The precedence due age belongs to Bluetts ridi / re . sqiie Tourist of Scotland ( Edinburgh : Adam aT ! . ? i httr "M Black ) , which appears for the twelfth time , revised" and corrected , arid which certainly should bo the companion of every Scottish umrist . y > r . Alexander Taylor's Conwumllce 2 inqid , 'i / as to the Frcteatlv * Y r \ '' w £ ' J limic na te of Fait and of MontpclUer , Ut / crcs , P'Vri l V * ^ l ^ s boon considerably altered and enlarged . Mr . F . S . if . lJtLTt n & Uli , P « Wi « to the third edition of his History of Greece , ATnr £ n \ o ° W' ui > h > / , Literature , and Political Institutions ( Simnkin and Marshall ) , a book which all tutors should know . Among Mr . iiohn ' s latest
reprints are volumes of the Memoirs of Sully , Thierry ' s Norman Conaupsi and the Orations of' Demostimies . * « . « Mr . Bayle St . ' John has published in a pretty volume—the first of" Addev " ? Library for Old and Young "—his Legends of the Christian East , already % a familiar to the readers of the Household Words . In a brief preface he mentions that , with one or two unimportant exceptions , they are based on narr-itives and suggestions gathered by himself in the East . Some of the titles have a very Oriental tone : . «• The Legend of the Weeping Chamber , " the "Sister of the Spirits , "' the " Merchant ' s Heart , " the u Secret of the Well " * Vm "Little Flower , " and the " Story of a Ring . " We should remark that the new Library commenced by the Messrs . Ad ( ley is composed of attractive little volumes , neatly bound in cloth , with -good illustrations in litho ^ ranl Among recent issues must also be noted Mr . St . John's novel , Maretifio re ' printed from Chmnbers ' s Journal ( Chapman aacl Hall ) , and a third edition of his Two Years ' Residence in a Levantine Fami . li / —forming volumes of Messrs
Chapman and Hall ' s Popular Libraries . Mrs . Gore has revived , in a quaint shape , her Sketches of English Character , being reprinted between covers of gaudy red and yellow ( Ward and Lock ) . 'The same publishers have issued a volume of Mr . Albert Smith ' s miscellaneous writings , Mr . Horace Mayhe-w ' s WonderfulPeople—scarcely worth reprinting— and a batch of Mr . Ano-tis . Keach ' s lig-h ' f varieties , entitled' jl /« of the Hour . Mr . George Raymond publishes Drafts for Acceptance— -apparently a selection from the Magazines We suppose we may include among reprints Our Miscellany Y by E . Yates and R . Brough . This contains a number of fragmentary pieces in imitation of various authors . They should have been left , Ave think , in dead back ' . nurobers , or still better in MS . We should have been Mad , at all events , not to have seen these authors * names ( or portraits )' * oh ' ' such ' a title-page . It was injudicious to become a candidate for failure , in envula ^ tiott ofthe Rejected Addresses .
≫¦ " F R*L ± '&Ll£ ^11*111 S * - ¦¦¦ .. ¦ . ¦ —?-—- :
¦¦ . ;¦ ¦'" . . ClirSlrte . . ' ¦ . ¦¦ . ¦ : . . . , V ¦ .. ¦¦ - ' ' . . ¦ ' ¦ . i i —_ . . ¦ . '' . ¦ .- . ' " ¦ "
Autiioll-Actors— « Pekdita " At The Lyck...
AUTIIOll-ACTORS— « PEKDITA " AT THE LYCKUM . Authors , every now and then , take it into their heads to become actors , and , in connexion with such attempts , dramatic history records fewer successes than failures . Of Shak . spkahe ' s acting we hear little else than that he plaved the Ghost in his own Hamkt ( not that this was his only part > , and that he was never conspicuous for any remarkable or brilliant powers as a performer , though as a manager and dramatic author he made a fortune . He seems always to have ranked far below Burbace and Au . kvnk . So did ] 5 en Jonsok , Marlowe , Hevwood . and the other literary actors of those times . Shak . sp . i 2 A . rb evidently hated appearing personally on ' the stage , as being a degradation to the loftiness of his poetical genius ; and no doubt it is to this that he alludes when , in his Sonnets , he says : — My nature is subdued
To what it works in , like the dyer ' s hand . In our own days , we have seen two or three failures of a like nature , or rather ' of a much worse nature ; and , although Mr . Dickens , Mr . Jerroi , d , and others have achieved great things in semi-private theatricals , we do not know -what even they might turn out if they were to take to the ordinary routine of professional acting . We recollect , some twenty years ago ( . "in the greener times of our youth , " as Spenser , says ) , seeing Sheridan Knowles , during his brief career on the stage , perform Marc Antony , in Julius Cwsar , with most lamentable anefficiency ; the chief characteristic being an amount of rant which made him hoarse long before the fifth act . This capacity to roar has no doubt been useful to him in his subsequent exercitations in the Baptist pulpit ; but it failed on the Covent Gaujden stage , where audiences are more critical , intelligent , and discriminating .
After these conspicuous instances , Mr . William Brough will forgive us if we say that he succeeds better on foolscap than on " the boards "—wields his pen with mere effect than his stage sceptre . His performance of Polixeiies in his own burlesque of Perdita , or the lloyal Milkmaid , founded on the story of Suakspeark ' s Winter' ' s Tola , is not positively bad , for it is neither conceived nor executed in bad taste ; tut it is so tunie , flat , and insipid , as to be simply nothing . It exhibits no peculiar features , has no salient points , brings ho fresh conception into the conventionalities of the stage , lacks both point and breadth , is deficient in ease , assurance , and apparent spontaneity , and docs not
compensate the necessary want of experience in the execution by any rough vigour in the design . We have suspended our judgment till Mr . Brough has rubbed oil" the inevitable nervousness of the first tew nights ; but even now his actions want ease and appropriateness . He walks by jerks , stands with a certain irrelevance to the other performers , and exhibits an undue flurry in his exits and his entrances . His voice , however , is good , and his intonation not strained nor affected—two points in his favour ; and , when he has got more accustomed to his now element , and lias appeared in a better character ( for he has niodestty taken tlie least effective part in his own piece ) , it is very likely we may have to give him a heartier welcome .
I he inece itself is much better than its author ' s acting . With the exception of a few vulgarities , more fitted for the Awaaa'iu than the Lyceum , and which we should never have hud under the management of the Ma . tuis \ vhes , we can commend Pcrdita as a very bright , light , sparkling , amusing little trifle , some of the puns in which are worthy of the veteran Plancue ; and , the trav ' estie having reference more to the story than to Siiaksi'eaiie ' s poetry , the disrespect to the great dramatist is minimized . Charming is it to see Mis-s VVooi .-gaii ( as we must still beg leave to call her ) appearing again in one of her favourite young prince parts . . The other performers call for a passing word or two of < : oiimiciit . Mr . Toomj , as Autolycus , shows a good deal of low humour , of of its
and his parody " Bobbing Around" is admirable in tlie intensity Yankeoism . Miss Hahjuet ( Johdon is smart-and impudent in Time , an Chorus ; Miss Wilton is pretty and engaging as IWUikt ; and Mrs . Buckingham WiiiTL-: makes a magnificent J / crmione , and looks particularly handsome in the statue ficene . Mr . S . CL . iiaeji , who performs Lcontcs , is a wild Irish gvutlcimui , who , wo should think , has been lately caugh t in the desortsof Couneuiar : i , and wlio is evidently possessed with the idea that he is emulating Mr . Kohson in that actor ' s peculiar style of mingled tragedy and burlesque . The audience , however , do not share in that conception , nor can we . The piece is prettily put on the stage , and includes a pleasant little ballot among its other attractions .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 4, 1856, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04101856/page/20/
-